;)
The Conversation -- October 12, 2024
Katie Rogers, et al., of the New York Times: “Vice President Kamala Harris released a letter on Saturday from her White House doctor, who said she is in 'excellent health' and is successfully managing some minor health issues.... The release of Ms. Harris’s medical information comes as ... Donald J. Trump, her 78-year-old rival, has refused to reveal similar basic health information. Ms. Harris, 59, has seasonal allergies, mild nearsightedness and skin hives that she treats with over-the-counter and prescription medication, wrote Joshua R. Simmons, the physician to the vice president. 'Vice President Harris remains in excellent health,' Dr. Simmons wrote in a two-page letter that appeared to be a summary but not a complete medical report. 'She possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency, to include those as chief executive, head of state and commander in chief.' Ms. Harris has not had diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis or neurological disorders, Dr. Simmons wrote.” ~~~
~~~ Here's Dr. Simmons' letter, via the White House.
~~~~~~~~~~
Presidential Race
David Gilmour of Mediaite: “The feature by [Vogue], which publicly endorsed Harris in July, comes as a publicity boost in the pivotal final moments in her presidential campaign, the announcement noting: 'Rarely are individuals summoned for acts of national rescue.'... The image shot by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz, is accompanied by a lengthy cover story, for which Harris was interviewed, and highlights Harris’s rise to the forefront of politics.” ~~~
~~~ Apparently, wingers are very upset that the photo of Harris was touched up. MB: I'm not sure then why they don't mind that all the officials photos of Trump have been air-brushed. And those trading cards picture him as a fantastical, cartoonish young, muscular hunk.
Ashleigh Fields of the Hill: “Vice President Harris’s campaign released an ad titled 'Like Detroit' on Friday, criticizing former President Trump for his unfavorable comments about the city.... The video will air in Michigan markets during the Detroit Tigers game on Saturday and the Lions game on Sunday.” Actor Courtney Vance, a Detroit native, does the voiceover.~~~
Kellen Browning of the New York Times: “Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota took the stage in a Detroit suburb on Friday to offer a sharp rebuttal to ... Donald J. Trump, who had positioned himself as a savior of the auto industry at an appearance in Detroit a day earlier. Speaking to about 100 people inside a community college’s fabrication shop in Warren, Mich., Mr. Walz argued that the Trump economic agenda would be harmful to blue-collar workers and manufacturing in the state.... 'Trump ... has been an absolute disaster for working people,' Mr. Walz said. 'One of the biggest losers of manufacturing jobs of any American president in history.' He blamed Mr. Trump for the loss of about 280,000 jobs in Michigan during the pandemic, suggesting the former president’s 'disastrous mismanagement' of Covid, his trade wars and the federal contracts he gave to businesses that off-shored jobs were to blame.... Mr. Walz, speaking in Warren, also condemned Mr. Trump’s unusual decision to disparage Detroit while in the city itself.... Mr. Walz said, 'If the guy were to ever spend time in the Midwest, like all of us know — we know Detroit’s experienced an American comeback, a renaissance.'
“Mr. Walz referenced recent reporting that thousands of copies of Trump-branded Bibles were produced in China. 'This dude even outsourced God to China,' he said, as the crowd laughed. Mr. Walz said he did not blame Mr. Trump for not noticing 'the made-in-China sticker — cause they put it inside, a place he’s never looked.' Mr. Walz also had harsh words for Elon Musk..., who is working relentlessly to get Mr. Trump elected. He criticized Mr. Musk for laughing while Mr. Trump discussed firing striking workers during a livestreamed conversation the duo had on the Musk-owned social media platform X, and pointed out that the businessman was building a Tesla factory in Mexico, rather than in Michigan.... By contrast, Mr. Walz said, Ms. Harris’s administration would help 'release the full potential of American industry.'” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Walter Einenkel, writing in the Daily Kos, reports that what Walz actually said about the made-in-China Trump Bible was, “I don't blame him. He didn't notice the ‘Made in China’ sticker because they put it inside, a place he’s never looked in the Bible.” This short clip, embedded in Einenkel's story backs him up. Why Browning truncated Walz' remark, in a manner that gives it a different meaning, is beyond me. But I know it's dishonest reporting. ~~~
Michael Gold & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: “... Donald J. Trump escalated the nativist, anti-immigration rhetoric that has animated his political career with a speech Friday in Aurora, Colo., where he repeated false and grossly exaggerated claims about undocumented immigrants that local Republican officials have refuted. For weeks, Aurora has been fending off false rumors about the city. And its conservative Republican mayor, Mike Coffman, said in a statement on Friday that he hoped to show Mr. Trump that Aurora was 'a considerably safe city.' But Mr. Trump has made debunked claims about Aurora, a Denver suburb, such a central part of his stump speech that he took a campaign detour to Colorado, which has not voted for a Republican in a presidential election since 2004.... During a meandering 80-minute speech Mr. Trump repeated [debunked] claims ... that Aurora had been 'invaded and conquered,' described the United States as an 'occupied state,' called for the death penalty 'for any migrant that kills an American citizen' and revived a promise to use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport suspected members of drug cartels and criminal gangs without due process.” ~~~
~~~ Sabrina Rodriguez of the Washington Post: “Donald Trump is leaning into a nativist, anti-immigrant message in the final stage of his third presidential campaign, advancing a closing argument centered on fearmongering, falsehoods and stereotypes about migrants as polls show his edge on economic issues fading. In recent days, the former president has suggested that 'bad genes' are to blame for people in the country illegally who have committed murders, reprised his warnings about a migrant 'invasion' and suggested Vice President Kamala Harris’s handling of border issues shows she is 'mentally impaired.'... [At his rally in Aurora, he] blamed Harris for importing 'an army of illegal alien gang members and migrant criminals from the dungeons of the Third World.'”
~~~ Marie: I realize Trump is not capable of logical thinking, but I wonder how a mentally competent Trump would justify imposing the death penalty upon the very people he says are predestined to murder: “You know, now, a murderer, I believe this, it’s in their genes. And we got a lot of bad genes in our country right now.” It seems to me that in Trump Court, anyone (or at least anyone of color) should be able to mount a successful defense based on Trump's theory that “My genes made me do it.”
Jonathan Swan, et al., of the New York Times: “Over ... [dinner at Trump Tower in late September with wealthy donors, Donald Trump] tore through a bitter list of grievances. He made it clear that people, including donors, needed to do more, appreciate him more and help him more. He disparaged Vice President Kamala Harris as 'retarded.' He complained about the number of Jews still backing Ms. Harris.... At one point, Mr. Trump seemed to suggest that these donors had plenty to be grateful to him for. He boasted about how great he had been for their taxes, something that some privately noted wasn’t true for everyone in the room.... He’s trailing ... [Ms. Harris] for cash and has had to hustle to keep raising it.... [She raised] $1 billion in less than three months as a candidate — a sum greater than the total Mr. Trump raised all year.... She raised more than twice as much as Mr. Trump in July, August and September.”
Josh Dawsey & Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post: “Donald Trump’s campaign requested military aircraft for Trump to fly in during the final weeks of the campaign, expanded flight restrictions over his residences and rallies, ballistic glass pre-positioned in seven battleground states for the campaign’s use and an array of military vehicles to transport Trump, according to emails reviewed by The Washington Post and people familiar with the matter. The requests are extraordinary and unprecedented — no nominee in recent history has been ferried around in military planes ahead of an election. But the requests came after Trump’s campaign advisers received briefings in which the government said Iran is still actively plotting to kill him....
“'Assistance from the Department of Defense is regularly provided for the former president’s protection, to include explosive ordnance disposal, canine units, and airlift transportation,” [Secret Service spokesman Anthony] Guglielmi said. The Secret Service is also imposing temporary flight restrictions 'over the former president’s residence and when he travels,' he added. 'Additionally, the former president is receiving the highest level of technical security assets which include unmanned aerial vehicles, counter unmanned aerial surveillance systems, ballistics and other advanced technology systems.' Senior U.S. officials said it was unlikely the Trump campaign would be provided military planes based on the current intelligence.”
Sophia Cai of Axios: "Donald Trump's campaign quietly has changed a key part of its messaging operation, tapping Trump 2020 veteran Tim Murtaugh to lead its communications in the final month before the election.... The campaign isn't changing anyone's titles in its communications team to try to avoid the appearance of a shake-up..., two sources said.... 'Danielle Alvarez, Steven Cheung and Brian Hughes are unparalleled,' [co-campaign manager Susan Wiles] said...." MB: IOW, campaign spokespeople will still be spewing appalling insults in response to routine questions.
Peter Baker of the New York Times: “In the nearly four years since he left the White House, Mr. Trump has acted as something of a shadow president on international affairs operating out of what he used to call the Winter White House at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Even before he kicked off a comeback bid to reclaim his old office, foreign governments realized that Mr. Trump was still a force in American politics and that they needed to take him into account in their dealings with the United States. Now that he is the Republican nominee for president in next month’s election, foreign leaders have been playing up to Mr. Trump even more. A parade of world leaders has made the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago or to Trump Tower in New York, including the leaders of Ukraine, Israel, Poland, Hungary, Argentina, Qatar, [and] the United Arab Emirates.... 'Trump ran his White House like a Middle East dictatorship, so these actions are par for the course with him,' said Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. 'But it’s off-the-charts unusual and potentially a major national security threat for a number of reasons.'”
Andrew Feinberg of the Independent: “Mark Milley, the US Army general who Donald Trump appointed as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, now says the current Republican presidential nominee is a 'fascist to the core' and says no person has ever posed more of a danger to the United States than the man who served as the 45th President of the United States. Milley, a decorated military officer who became a target for right-wing scorn after it became known that he expressed concerns over Trump’s mental stability in the wake of his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden, is described by journalist Bob Woodward in his new book, War, as incredibly alarmed at the prospect of a second Trump term in the White House.” Read on.
Michael Bender of the New York Times: “In an interview with The New York Times that will be published on Saturday, [JD] Vance repeatedly refused to acknowledge ... Donald J. Trump’s defeat and went to even greater lengths to avoid doing so than he did during the vice-presidential debate earlier this month. When asked about the previous election during an hourlong interview with Lulu Garcia-Navarro, a host of 'The Interview,' a Times podcast published each Saturday, the Republican vice-presidential nominee responded that he was 'focused on the future.' It was the same phrase he used to evade the same question during his debate with his Democratic rival, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota.... On her fifth request for a yes-or-no answer, Ms. Garcia-Navarro pointed out that there was 'no proof, legal or otherwise,' of election fraud. Mr. Vance dismissed that as 'a slogan.'” ~~~
~~~ Update. Lulu Garcia-Navarro of the New York Times: JD “Vance has always been comfortable in the public eye, starting with his job dealing with the media as a public-affairs officer in the Marines. As an author, commentator and candidate, he has left a long record ... of his evolving views.... In a 2021 podcast, for example, he said that Trump, if elected again, should 'seize the institutions of the left,' 'fire every single midlevel bureaucrat' in the U.S. government, 'replace them with our people' and defy the Supreme Court if it tried to stop him. That is what Vance sounds like when he’s talking to his base. But a very different Vance appeared recently on the debate stage, where, when speaking to a national audience, he was much less divisive and much more willing to engage in a civil discussion with a political opponent ... Tim Walz....” What follows is what appears to be a full transcript of the interview. Included as well are audio of the interview and links to a number of podcasts. ~~~
~~~ Update 2. Here are Bender's takeaways from the interview. Bender and JayDee make JayDee sound quite nice & reasonable. ~~~
~~~ Hypocrisy, Thy Name Is JayDee. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: During the Times interview, “Vance revived the old, false claim that briefly limiting the Hunter Biden story on social media made Trump lose. Meanwhile, his campaign pushed X to do just that.... X banned [Ken] Klippenstein’s [publication of a purloined Trump briefing book], purportedly because the linked document included personal information about Vance. But also because the Trump campaign wanted it to be limited, according to the Times’s Elon Musk story. 'After a reporter’s publication of hacked Trump campaign information last month,' the story notes, 'the campaign connected with X to prevent the circulation of links to the material on the platform, according to two people with knowledge of the events. X eventually blocked links to the material and suspended the reporter’s account.'” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I feel a bit dishonest when I refer to the junior senator from Ohio as JayDee. As Akhilleus has pointed out, JayDee has used many aliases.
Today, he prefers JD Vance.
But before that, he called himself J.D. Vance; i.e., J Dot D Dot Vance.
Before that it was J.D. Hamel.
Before that it was James. D. Hamel.
Before that he was James David Hamel.
He was born James Donald Bowman.
Maya Boddie of AlterNet: "Undercover audio shared to social media by liberal filmmaker Lauren Windsor on Thursday shows Donald Trump ally Roger Stone revealing his plans to disrupt the electoral process next month if the ex-president doesn't defeat Kamala Harris.... [Stone told an undercover reporter at an event in August 2024 that during Trump's previous administration,] 'We were never really in control.... I was indicted by Donald Trump's Justice Department. Donald Trump never controlled the Justice Department. [Former Attorney General] Bill Barr [is a] traitorous piece of human garbage!' Stone went on to call the former Trump AG 'a piece of s—t.' [Stone's plan to put Trump back in office:] '... We gotta fight it out on a state-to-state basis.... When they throw us out of Detroit, you go get a court order, you come in with your armed guards, and you dispute it.'" ~~~
~~~ Alice Herman of the Guardian writes a story that includes a bit more context.
Lolita Baldor of the AP: “Two U.S. Navy SEALs drowned as they tried to climb aboard a ship carrying illicit Iranian-made weapons to Yemen because of glaring training failures and a lack of understanding about what to do after falling into deep, turbulent waters, according to a military investigation.... The review concluded that the drownings of Chief Special Warfare Operator Christopher J. Chambers and Navy Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Nathan Gage Ingram could have been prevented. But both sank quickly in the high seas off the coast of Somalia, weighed down by heavy equipment they were carrying and not knowing or disregarding concerns that their flotation devices could not compensate for the additional weight. Both were lost at sea. The highly critical and heavily redacted report — written by a Navy officer from outside Naval Special Warfare Command, which oversees the SEALs — concluded there were 'deficiencies, gaps and inconsistencies' in training, policies, tactics and procedures as well as 'conflicting guidance' on when and how to use emergency flotation devices and extra buoyancy material that could have kept them alive.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Marie: Perhaps there are some costs to buying one of world's largest social media platforms, then turning it into a vehicle for promoting fascism. ~~~
~~~ California. Mike Bedigan of the Independent: “State officials have rejected SpaceX’s plans to launch further rockets in California, after Elon Musk’s recent 'aggressive' insertion into the US presidential race. Questions have been raised as to whether actions by the space exploration company, owned by Musk, should be considered federal or private activity. The plan to increase the number of SpaceX rocket launches to up to 50 a year was rejected by the California Coastal Commission on Thursday, with some officials citing Musk’s incredibly political posts on his social media platform X. 'We’re dealing with a company, the head of which has aggressively injected himself into the presidential race,' commission Chair Caryl Hart said. 'This company (SpaceX) is owned by the richest person in the world with direct control of what could be the most expansive communications system on the planet,' Commissioner Mike Wilson said. 'Just last week that person was talking about political retribution.'”
Texas. Caroline Kitchener of the Washington Post: “A Texas man who sued three women for allegedly helping his ex-wife obtain abortion pills has dropped his claims — prompting abortion rights advocates to declare victory in the first case of its kind to be brought since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The lawsuit, filed in state court in Galveston County in March 2023, claimed that helping someone obtain an abortion qualifies as murder under the state’s homicide law and the abortion ban that took effect shortly after the Supreme Court ruling, allowing a Texas man to sue under the wrongful-death statute.... [Marcus] Silva, who identified himself as the 'father of the unborn child,' agreed to drop the case late Thursday after several different state courts refused to compel his ex-wife and the three defendants to provide additional information. One Texas Supreme Court justice called attention to what he described as Silva’s 'disgracefully vicious harassment and intimidation of his ex-wife.'”
Virginia. Alexander Malin of ABC News: "The Justice Department filed suit against Virginia on Friday over a statewide program aimed at removing voters from its election rolls in the lead-up to the 2024 election if DMV records don't indicate United States citizenship. The Department said it filed the lawsuit based on a federal law that prohibits purges from rolls within the 90-day period leading up to an election.... The [purge] system, implemented via executive order by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, has already faced lawsuits from several immigration rights groups. The DOJ recently filed a similar lawsuit against the state of Alabama over similar voter roll purges.... In a statement on the governor's website, Youngkin called the lawsuit a 'politically motivated action,' and vowed to not 'stand idly by.'" MB: Uh, Glenn, that's what my grandma used to call the pot calling the kettle black. ~~~
~~~ Here's the DOJ's press release.
~~~~~~~~~~
Israel/Palestine, et al.
The Washington Post's live updates of developments Saturday in Israel's wars are here: “President Joe Biden said he is 'absolutely, positively' asking Israel to stop hitting U.N. peacekeepers. His remarks, in response to a reporter’s question on Friday, follow those by several world leaders and rights groups who have expressed concern since the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon announced that explosions near its headquarters had injured two peacekeepers — the second time the headquarters was affected by explosions in 48 hours. Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, described the attacks on UNIFIL as a criminal act that endangers international community norms and said his cabinet would urge the U.N. Security Council to call for an urgent cease-fire in Lebanon.”
Lara Jakes of the New York Times explores the unsettled international legal questions surrounding Israel's invasion of Hesbollah.
Ukraine, et al. Alex Horton, et al., of the Washington Post: “Russian forces have become deadlier and more agile with the help of illicit Starlink terminals ... despite U.S. efforts to stop the flow of technology.... Tens of thousands of Starlink dishes form the backbone of Ukraine’s military network, fueling devices vital to fighting a digital war — one of the few advantages Kyiv has against Moscow’s bigger, if less modernized, force.... The issue [of Russia's access to Starlink] has renewed Ukrainian frustrations over Elon Musk, SpaceX’s mercurial chief executive. Some [Ukraine] soldiers criticized Musk by name, saying his company has not done enough to crack down on illicit use and casting doubt on his desire to fix the problem, saying he appears to have favorable views toward Russia.... Musk was also widely condemned in Ukraine following reports he denied Kyiv’s request to allow Starlink access for sea drones in a planned 2022 attack on Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. His biographer Walter Isaacson also wrote that Musk sought counsel from the Russian ambassador to the United States and was worried he would play a role in a destabilizing escalation....
“The U.S. and Ukrainian governments are working with SpaceX to 'prevent Russia’s illicit use of Starlink terminals in occupied Ukraine,' including focus from the U.S. Treasury Department on 'potential sanctions violations' related to the international smuggling effort, said Lt. Col. Charlie Dietz, a Defense Department spokesman.... SpaceX provided free Starlink connection to Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 but then threatened to cut service following online spats with diplomats, citing the high costs. Musk relented under public pressure and then sent the bill to the Pentagon, the most recent totaling $14.1 million for six months of service through next month.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: No one should be a billionaire.
6 Comments
Reader Comments (6)
Handed a hundred million dollars out of the gate, plus a huge real estate empire, and political contacts a Mafia don would die for, none of which was any doing of his own, he ended up in bankruptcy court, not once, but four times, divorced multiple times, cheated on all his wives, a serial sexual predator and rapist, a sociopathic narcissist who seems to believe, against mountains of evidence that he’s a genius, responsible for ruining scores of lives previous to a monstrously disastrous political career, then responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands as a failed president, unable to open his mouth without spouting the most bizarre lies, clearly suffering from dementia, the condition passed on from his father, a bully, liar, failed businessman, possessor of a vocabulary few sixth graders would brag about, vain, overweight, and ignorant…
So…Now who has bad genes?
City hall has notified us that they will be closed Monday in
celebration of Indigenous Peoples Day.
I'm wondering if we're supposed to celebrate the fact that Europeans
arrived here in West Michigan and forced the indigenous people to
move a hundred miles north because they were occupying the best
farm land in the area.
The Europeans also changed the name of the local residents. They
called themselves Odawa. The newcomers changed it to Ottawa for
some reason.
The Grift: Hurricane Edition
"Comey and Smith, a story of one double standard"
Low IQ rantings
@ForrestMorris: Looks like somebody couldn't spell too gud.
Thanks to the remarkable ignorance of some Idaho state senator who told a Native American political candidate to "go back to where you came from," I have developed a new theory of immigration.
We're all immigrants or descendants of immigrants. I mean ALL.
Scientists can't agree when, how or exactly who first colonized North America. Reasoned estimates range from 30,000 years ago to 16,000 years ago. That's quite a range. They do agree they came from Eurasia -- a mighty large area. But whether they came by sea in boats or by foot over a land bridge is also in question.
As to when Western Europeans first showed up, that view also has changed during my lifetime. Christopher Columbus (who used to got the honors on Indigenous Peoples Day) got credit for being the guy who "In fourteen-hundred-and-ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue." That was true enough, but Columbus never set foot in North America, so of course he didn't establish any colonies here. It wasn't till 1565 that the Spanish established the first West European colony at St. Augustine, Florida.
Way back before that, an Eastern European who probably did get to North America (probably Newfoundland) was Norseman Leif Erikson. He and his crew may have arrived some 500 years before Columbus set sail. Leif had a bit of a head start inasmuch as his father Eric the Red led a settlement at Greenland (after Erik got kicked out of Iceland, which was after he got kicked out of Norway), where Leif grew up. (In fairness, Leif may have started off from Norway, according to one theory, on what was supposed to be a voyage to Greenland, but he got lost & landed on our shores.)
Anyhow, the point is, we all immigrated here, whether from Eurasia, or Norway (though the Vikings' settlement in Newfoundland didn't last long) or Spain, or -- later -- other European countries and, yes Africa.
The point is that none of our ancestors sprang up sui generis in North America. They all immigrated from someplace else, whether they're Donald Trump's mom, who came over on the boat, or Osceola's ancestors, who somehow got from Asia to Alaska to Florida.
So Happy Immigrants' Day, one and all.